Bringing Music of the World to Students

Three dozen music teachers studied song sheets with the words in the Akan language of Ghana and music to ''Bantama Kra Kro,'' a Ghanaian stick-game song. Soon, most of the group was vigorously singing, and several members rose to try a Ghanaian dance.

Others settled on the floor to play the game, one clanged a Ghanaian gong called the gankogui (pronounced gon-KO-gwee) and another clicked an iron castanet, or firikyiwa (pronounced FREE-kee-wah). Their leader, Judith Cook Tucker, pounded a donno, a Ghanaian squeeze drum.

''You're singing this in the language in which it was meant to be sung,'' she called out.

Mrs. Tucker thinks that the authentic music of other cultures belongs in American classrooms. She leads workshops that show teachers how to incorporate such works as ''Bantama Kra Kro'' into their classes, and operates the World Music Press from an office in the basement of her home in Danbury where she lives with her husband and two sons.

World Music produces books and tapes and rescues out-of-print works that feature the music of other cultures, from Africa, Asia and the Americas.

''There's a need for ethnic music in the schools, to acknowledge that our society has many cultures that are part of it,'' Mrs. Tucker said. She noted that many schools had multicultural populations and that children from Puerto Rico or Laos deserved to have their music included. In schools where there is little cross-cultural interaction, Mrs. Tucker said, hearing Ghanaian or Laotian music helps give students a global perspective.

The teachers at Mrs. Tucker's workshop were participating in an open house sponsored by the Kodaly Institute of Musical Training at the Hartt School of Music of the University of Hartford. Mrs. Tucker taught the teachers songs from her publishing house, including a poignant Puerto Rican song about growing up and leaving family, teachers and friends. She noted that everyone could participate in the songs by singing, clapping, dancing, joining a game, playing an instrument or calling out a response.

Authentic instruments add flavor, but regular classroom instruments can also be used.

''I bring authentic instruments, so teachers have a chance to hear the real sound,'' Mrs. Tucker said later. ''But it's the process of community music making that matters.''

At the end of the workshop, many teachers purchased sheet music, books, tapes and records to use in their schools.

Matilda Giampietro McMackin, who teaches at the Washington Montessori School in New Preston, said, ''I think the more authentic the music you use in the classroom, the more exciting, the more grabbing it is for kids.''

''It's like handing them something valuable, instead of a McDonald's hamburger,'' she added.

Collen Casey-Nelson, who teaches in New Britain, said that more than half her students were Puerto Rican, that many of their parents knew the Puerto Rican songs she taught, and that she thought it was important ''to give something'' to families that so often felt displaced.

''Plus, it's fun, and it's natural for kids,'' she said. ''It's nice to have resources; it's nice to have something from Puerto Rico,''

Mrs. Tucker said she established the World Music Press in 1985 to meet a need for materials that were not ''stereotyped and inaccurate.''

She studied music as a youngster, majored in anthropology and journalism at New York University, performed as a folk singer on the West Coast, and operated a music store in Portland, Ore., specializing in handcrafted ethnic instruments before moving to Danbury in the late 1970's.

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After taking a workshop with a Congolese musician, Mrs. Tucker studied in ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University in Middletown. In 1983, she received a master's degree in liberal studies with a concentration in world music for the classroom.

While working on her degree, Mrs. Tucker taught in nursery schools, performed with a storyteller, and gave workshops for students and teachers.

''The more I learned at Wesleyan,'' Mrs. Tucker recalled, ''the more I worked in schools, the more teachers asked, 'Where can we find this stuff? The kids love it.'

''That's how I got into publishing. What was really needed out there was not me, but the material.'' Mrs. Tucker wrote ''Let Your Voice Be Heard,'' the first World Music Press publication, with two musicians who were her teachers at Wesleyan, Abraham Kobena Adzinyah of Ghana and Dumisani Maraire of Zimbabwe. The book, which grew out of Mrs. Tucker's master's thesis, has music and words in Akan and the Shona language of Zimbabwe for 19 songs along with translations, explanations of deeper meanings, a pronunciation guide, illustrations and information about Ghana and Zimbabwe.

The latest publication is ''A Singing Wind: Five Melodies From Ecuador,'' which includes instructions for dancing and other information in Spanish and English. ''It was produced with urban areas in mind,'' Mrs. Tucker said. The author, Elizabeth Villarreal Brennan, is an Ecuadorean musician who teaches in Philadelphia.

Early next summer, World Music is to issue a more extensive but similar book of Puerto Rican songs. The author, Alejandro Jimenez, is a native Puerto Rican who teaches in Hartford. Other releases will feature China and Southeast Asia.

The business also publishes sheet music and editions of books no longer available, like ''Teaching the Music of Six Different Cultures.''

Some of the tapes are intended to accompany the books, and World Press distributes such materials as ''Dragon Boat, 20 Chinese Folk Songs'' from other publishers.

Mrs. Tucker gives workshops around the country, but, she said, she spends most of her time on publishing. ''More people are introducing multicultural education in the schools,'' she said, and the demand is increasing.

Information on the programs is available from World Music Press, P.O. Box 2565, Danbury, Conn. 06813. The telephone number is 748-1131.

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A version of this article appears in print on April 24, 1988, on Page CN12 of the National edition with the headline: Bringing Music of the World to Students. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe